The present invention relates to protective equipment, and, more particularly, to protective headgear.
In the past, a wide variety of protective headgear has been devised for use by participants in a number of sports, such as football, hockey, and baseball, and for use as crash helmets to protect a wearer's head in the event of a collision. Such headgear has ranged from simple cloth or leather head coverings with minimal padding to hard outer shells supported upon a network of straps. More recently, as developing technology has made possible the more accurate measurement of forces transmitted through protective headgear and has made available modern materials and techniques, significant improvements have been made with respect to the energy-absorbing characteristics of such headgear.
Consistent with the current state of the art, one of the preferred designs of protective headgear features a relatively hard outer helmet shell in conjunction with a flexible fluid-filled inner liner to support the helmet and dissipate forces applied thereto. However, as illustrated in applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,763, this current headgear design requires an impact-absorbing chin cup strapped to the wearer's chin to secure the helmet in place. Because the presence of such a chin strap results in substantial wearer discomfort and inconvenience, such helmets have been adopted only in the most vigorous contact sports and in situtations having unusually high risk of collision. In moderate risk situtations, such as in passenger cars and in industrial "hard hat" areas, either no protective headgear or less substantial protective headgear has been preferred, largely due to the interference of the chin strap with the wearer's activity.
To applicant's knowledge, there has been no apparatus devised for use with modern protective headgear which eliminates the need for a chin strap. Applicant is aware of rudimentary nape straps which have been worn with various decorative or sun-shielding hats, as illustrated by early military campaign hats, which have been used in place of traditional chin straps. However, such rudimentary nape straps are clearly inadequate to secure modern protective headgear in place and to absorb and distribute forces applied to the protective headgear. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an energy-absorbing headband assembly for modern protective headgear which eliminates the need for a chin strap.